Joint Mitnor Cave, also known as Bone Cave, is a limestone cave situated in the now disused Higher Kiln Quarry near

Buckfastleigh Buckfastleigh is a market town and civil parish in Devon, England situated beside the Devon Expressway ( A38) at the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. It is part of Teignbridge and, for ecclesiastical purposes, lies within the Totnes Deanery. ...

, in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

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. The cave is one of a number at the quarry and in the surrounding area, and is managed by the Pengelly Trust.

Palaeontology

The cave has been excavated and its animal remains examined on several occasions. The first period of excavation was in 1939–41, when over 4000 mammal bones were discovered deposited in the cave. In September 2015, thieves broke into the cave (despite its locked steel door) and stole a number of fossil bones which were on display in their original setting. Reconstructions of the stolen fossils were later produced by

3D printing 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

by academics and put on show in the cave in their place. The caves were later reopened by the great-grandson of the original founder, Joshua Burroughs.

References

Caves of Devon {{Devon-geo-stub